Mr Bettison, who was a chief inspector in South Yorkshire Police at the time of the tragedy, on April 15, 1989, was questioned by barristers representing the families of the 96 victims as he gave evidence for a third day.

He was asked why, when applying for the top job in the Merseyside force, he did not mention his role in a team led by Chief Superintendent Terry Wain which was tasked with finding “suitable material” for lawyers to present the police case after the disaster.

Mr Bettison said: “Let me be clear: I’m not embarrassed by the issue.

“I wasn’t involved in some black propaganda unit to put the blame on the fans.

Hillsborough, 15 April 1989

“The issue that is under discussion here is being viewed against the current narrative rather than the situation that faced me when I went to Merseyside for an interview, for a job, in 1998, nine years after the Hillsborough disaster, and when I hadn’t been criticised for any aspect of my work in the two/three months of work that I did immediately after the disaster.

“This context is very different from the context that you are trying to create in this courtroom.”

The court was shown minutes of an informal meeting held with Mr Bettison and members Merseyside Police Authority in November 1998, after his appointment.

Former Merseyside Police chief constable Norman Bettison

At the meeting Mr Bettison was asked why, when asked about the incident he would most like to forget, he did not mention Hillsborough.

He was recorded in the minutes as saying: “How did I interpret the question that you refer to? I considered it to relate to my proudest achievement and my most embarrassing incident as a police officer.

“I did not interpret it to mean the most traumatic.”

He added: “The embarrassing moment that flashed in my mind was that fall on my first day in uniform.

“Nothing about Hillsborough embarrasses me. I didn’t think of Hillsborough when the question was posed.”

He said he thought some of the members of the police authority were embarrassed that they had not asked him directly about Hillsborough at his interview panel, despite being given a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary which mentioned his role.

Mr Bettison told the inquests he thought the bereaved families were upset by his description of his work relating to Hillsborough as “peripheral”.

A sea of tributes at Anfield in the aftermath of Hillsborough, April 1989 (Image: Steve Hale, Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

He said: “It was a word that I used in a briefing to the Merseyside Police Authority on November 2 and I used it specifically to refer to the fact that I wasn’t involved in the planning of the operation, I wasn’t involved in the operational command of the Hillsborough event, I wasn’t involved in organising the rescue effort or the decisions that were made in the 24 hours afterwards.”

The jury was shown minutes of a meeting of South Yorkshire Police Federation, attended by Mr Bettison, Michael Shersby MP and other officers in October 1989, after Lord Justice Taylor had published an interim report into the disaster.

At the meeting the publicity director for the federation, Tony Judge, was recorded as saying: “Morale in this force is very high and they repudiate the judgement.

“This should come across in a debate and we should plan with Michael Shersby the counter attack.”

The court heard that the following month Mr Bettison went to the House of Commons to show a video presentation about the disaster to MPs including Mr Shersby.

In a report of the meeting he sent to the chief constable, Mr Bettison mentioned that two Conservative MPs had expressed disappointment that the debate on Lord Justice Taylor’s findings was not sooner, as they believed the passage of time would diminish the impact.

Peter Wilcock, representing 75 of the families, suggested that in that report Mr Bettison was providing “ammunition for that promised attack”.

Mr Bettison said he was giving an account of what was relevant.

Former South Yorkshire Police Chief Inspector and former Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, Sir Norman Bettison, arriving at the new Hillsborough inquests today

He said: “What I’m referring to here and what was the issue in terms of the debate that was taking place at South Yorkshire Police headquarters at this time was, how is it that Lord Justice Taylor found several organisations at fault and yet the only legacy, the only lasting narrative, the only media narrative, to come out of that were about the failings of South Yorkshire Police?”

He added: “It would be wrong to see any references to countering or attack or being seen in any way focused on the fans.”

But Mr Wilcock said no other organisations were referred to at the Police Federation meeting.

He said: “The bile that we have been through from attendees at this meeting, it was directed towards Liverpool football fans, not other parties, wasn’t it?”

Norman Bettison suggested a TV company film the police pursuing a theory that fans conspired to arrive at Hillsborough late and without tickets - in an attempt to make the force look “caring”.

The former chief constable of Merseyside Police was asked about a report put together by a Detective Inspector Alan King for the Taylor inquiry, which put forward a theory that fans without tickets arrived late and conspired to cause trouble to force police to let them in.

Mr Bettison said he was aware that the report had been put into the inquiry through the police solicitors.

Peter Wilcock, representing 75 of the families, said: “Did you ever tell your superiors that, having sat through the Taylor inquiry evidence, you felt that this theory, as set out in this paper, was both half-baked and likely to inflame the frustrations of the families of those who died that day?”

Mr Bettison said: “I thought the first was true. My mind never went to the second point that you offer.”

He told the inquests: “There was a time when there was an approach from a television company and I can recall that I offered this and one or two other things that South Yorkshire Police were doing actively that may be an opportunity to show ourselves as active.”

Police at Hillsborough

The court was shown a note sent from Mr Bettison to chief constable Peter Wright on July 7, 1989, which referred to the documentary.

In the note Mr Bettison said he thought the force should take part in the programme on their “terms”.

He wrote: “Those terms might ensure that we are presented as a caring and professional organisation, doggedly pursuing the facts surrounding the disaster, eg, the conspiracy theory.”

Mr Bettison told the inquests that at that time the conspiracy theory was still being pursued and he had not yet come to the conclusion that it was “half-baked”.

He accepted that the Taylor inquiry had finished hearing evidence at that time, but said Lord Justice Taylor had not yet reached any conclusions.